Sorted Money Week Q&A with Nat Ferguson

The FSC is supporting Sorted Money Week using our conversation cards to have honest, open conversations about money! We interviewed some of the FSC team and our wider community to find out about their personal financial journeys.

Natalie Ferguson is the founder of a number of businesses, including a UX agency, a tour company, a job site, and more, and is a financial education champion, sharing content about financial wellbeing and breaking down jargon to help more Kiwis attain financial freedom. 

Read our conversation with Nat below.

Is building wealth good, bad, or morally neutral?  

Money is just a tool, it’s how you earn it and what you do with it that has moral implications. If you opt out of wealth building, you won’t impact anyone but yourself. If you opt in, you give yourself much more power to live the life you want and time and money to support the things you think are morally good. You control how you build wealth, from your spending habits to your employment and investments - so those should all align with your morals as much as reasonably possible. 

Will more money make you happier? Why or why not?

Yes. Because money buys two things:

1. Freedom from worry. The more you have (until a point), the less brain space you’ll take up with fear, worry and anxiety. 
2. Choice. For me, that means taking time off work, the ability to choose work I love, the ability to travel, being able to be there for the people I love.

What’s the role of money in your life?  

I use it to pay for necessities and the things that make my life better today (I try to regularly review my spending habits to cut expenses that don’t bring me joy). The rest, I invest to give myself more freedom and choice in the future.

How have your beliefs about money changed over the years?  

The biggest change is realising my time should only be one of the ways I earn money. The day you start receiving dividends or rental income, or see your investments increase in value, is the day you never see earning money the same again.

The second thing is there is no destination. The more wealth you build, the more your life can look different! I can make choices today that I couldn’t make 5 years ago. I haven’t hit my goal net worth, but I can enjoy the benefits of my hard work along the way. 

What is the best money tip you’ve ever been given?

Start investing. Start small, start now, and learn as you go.

Download your own set of money conversation cards here and start the conversation with your friends, family and colleagues!